Plant Financial Controller (Head of Finance)
If you're a finance leader who prefers being on the ground, close to operations, influencing real decisions, and driving performance - this is that role.
We're partnering with a well-established manufacturing business to hire a Plant Financial Controller to lead finance at site level. You'll sit as the right hand to the Plant Director, owning the numbers, challenging assumptions, and driving both cost discipline and operational efficiency.
This is not a reporting role - it's a commercially driven, highly visible leadership position.
What you'll be doing
- Serve as the finance lead for the plant, partnering closely with operations, supply chain, and engineering teams
- Provide financial insights to support decision-making, capex investments, and productivity initiatives
- Drive accountability on plant KPIs including yield, scrap, utilization, and cost per unit
- Lead annual budgeting, quarterly forecasts, and long-range planning
- Analyse variances and provide actionable recommendations to improve plant performance
- Develop cost models and support pricing, margin, and profitability analysis
- Oversee standard costing, BOM accuracy, and cost roll processes
- Monitor inventory valuation, obsolescence, and cycle counts
- Ensure strong controls over manufacturing costs, including labour, overheads, and materials
- Ensure accurate and timely month-end close and financial reporting
- Maintain strong internal controls and ensure compliance with company policies and statutory requirements
- Liaise with auditors, tax agents, and regulatory authorities
- Monitor working capital, including inventory, payables, and receivables
- Evaluate and track capital expenditure projects, including ROI and post-investment reviews
- Lead, coach, and develop the plant finance team
- Drive continuous improvement in finance processes and systems (e.g. SAP/ERP enhancements)
What we're looking for
- Strong foundation in manufacturing finance - you understand how a plant really runs
- Proven ability to influence operations (not just report numbers)
- Hands-on, commercially sharp, and comfortable challenging stakeholders
- Experience in costing, FP&A, and plant-level finance leadership
- Ideally 10+ years experience with exposure to ERP systems (SAP is a plus)
Why this role
- True business partnering role, you'll have a seat at the table
- High visibility with regional leadership
- Opportunity to drive real impact on plant performance, not just report it
If you're looking to step into a role where finance genuinely drives the business, happy to share more.
